


Into the Simulation

by kurokun2338



Series: The Daforge Short Treks [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Picard
Genre: AU Season 1, Bromance, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Epic Bromance, Epic Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Last meeting, Last wish, M/M, Romantic Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:54:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23877271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurokun2338/pseuds/kurokun2338
Summary: Geordi and Data’s last encounter.AU in which it is Geordi who gets to talk to Data in the simulationPicard 1-10
Relationships: Data & Geordi La Forge, Data/Geordi La Forge
Series: The Daforge Short Treks [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710400
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	Into the Simulation

**Author's Note:**

> If you have or have not watched Picard doesn’t matter for this story as it is only one scene from the last episode of series 1 that works without the big story around. You need to know the following about the AU I’m using:  
> Geordi was in the team to find the Android Soji. He dies on the Android’s Planet Coppelius before his time on a lung disease (actually his artificial lungs collapsed, but I didn’t use that information).  
> If you would like to read my rambling about why I wrote this in the first place (and about the series Picard), please check the end notes.

Geordi’s head feels heavy when he opens his eyes. He blinks into the dark and tries to recognize where he is. He is sitting in something soft, probably an armchair, beside him a fire is crackling in a fireplace, opposite him is another armchair, but empty. The room feels like a living room from a Sherlock Holmes novel, in dark color and dark wood, almost homely.

The vastness of the room is swallowed up by the darkness and all he sees is a low table in front of a sofa. Geordi wonders why his eyes do not switch to night vision. He sees everything as if he had human eyes.

“Another damn dream,” he mumbles and rubs his forehead.

“No, Geordi.”

Geordi’s head jerks up and in the direction from which the voice came. _The_ voice he only hears in his dreams. Data steps out of the darkness, dressed in his Starfleet uniform, just as Geordi last saw him alive. Then. Before he decided to sacrifice his life. Geordi smiles at him, although it is almost certainly a sad smile. Those dreams always left him sad. Sad and angry.

“It is a massively complex quantum simulation.” Data sits down in the armchair opposite. His golden skin glows darker and more radiant in the firelight. “I would imagine, however, from your point of view, hearing me say so would not be out of place in a dream you might have about me.” His face gets a thoughtful look. “If you ever have dreams about me.”

Geordi exhales with a laugh. “I dream about you all the time, my friend.”

“Interesting. Maybe that is why you confused dying with a dream.”

Geordi’s hands firmly grasp the armrests. “Dying?” He looks around once more, thoughts shoot into his mind, images follow of horrified glances, and then a pain in his chest. He looks back at Data. “Am I dead?”

“Yes, Geordi. Do you remember dying?”

“I think so. My lungs felt like they were being ripped apart inside me.”

“Hm. I am sorry for you that this was your last feeling. I am aware that I was killed in 2379, but I have no memory of my death. My consciousness exists in a massively complex quantum reconstruction made from a copy of the memories I downloaded into B-4 just before I died.”

“You don’t remember your death. I can’t forget it.”

“Apparently I ended my existence in the hope of prolonging Captain Picard’s.”

“Sure. And you were successful, he’s still alive. And he still blames himself for _you_ dying instead of him. That you took the decision away from him. He was furious.”

“I am sorry about that, too. But I am not certain I could have done otherwise.”

“Sure, we all know that.” Geordi is smiling now. “That was the most Data’esque thing you ever did. But-” He got serious again and hesitated whether to say what was on his mind for so many years. “I’m not sure you'll understand. It’s probably not part of your programming.”

“Please, try to explain, Geordi.”

“It will sound incredibly selfish and... vicious. But for a long time I’ve wished that it had been the Captain and not you who died. It wasn’t just a passing thought. I was so infinitely angry and sad, I projected all that onto the Captain and at some point I almost loathed him for his very existence. I had to leave the Enterprise to get a grip on those feelings.”

Data was silent and looked at him thoughtfully. “I think I understand what you mean, Geordi. Even though you should have been angry with me and loathed me. It was my decision. The Captain had neither the opportunity nor the time to grasp the situation and act. If I had done the same for you, would you be angry with yourself?”

“Yes.” Geordi doesn't have to think about it for a second.

“I see. So, you would have been angry about my dying, no matter who had been involved. As I understand it, this emotional state is called grief. There is no reason to see the accompanying feelings as selfish or vicious. I have never regretted that choice. And if it is any consolation, Geordi, I am sure that my last thought before I died was of my gratitude for your friendship.”

Geordi takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. Since then, his mind has never been so calm as at this moment. His anger at the Captain, Data and himself, which he’s carried all these years, no longer seems important. At last he feels peaceful.

“Thanks, Data.” Geordi opens his eyes again and clears his throat. Data sits opposite him with a gentle smile, only missing the bright aura Geordi is so familiar with. But for the second time since their stay with the Ba’ku, he sees Data like any other human.

“You said this was a simulation?” asks Geordi, more to distract from himself, even though he knows Data will see through it.

"Yes, an extremely sophisticated one. My memory engrams were extracted from a single neuron salvaged by Bruce Maddox. And then my consciousness was reconstructed by my brother Doctor Alten Soong."

“The Captain doesn’t much care for him. I haven't decided yet.”

“Hm. The Soongs can be, I believe the phrase is, an acquired taste?”

Geordi laughs at that statement. “Yes, I’m glad you don’t take after them.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

“Please.” Geordi sighs, leans forward and puts his forearms on his knees. He’s looking at Data again with his human vision. White-and-gold skin, yellow-and-gold eyes - a fascinating combination. “It’s wonderful to see you again, Data. Even if it's somehow strange to see you like everyone else. Without your beautiful, luminous aura. You know, apart from my anger, there’s only one thing I’ve really regretted since your death. That I never told you-” Geordi is stalling involuntarily. He just can’t get the rest of the sentence out of his mouth. Even now that he has another chance.

“That you loved me.” Data’s words echo back. Geordi still can’t speak and just nods. “I knew that, even without you saying it. I was not aware that you had to verbalize an emotion to make it meaningful. All those years of our friendship, did you not know that I loved you, too? In my own way.”

Geordi so has missed these moments of clarity, of sober words for highly emotional topics. He’s never met someone who was anything like Data. How could he? Data has been unique for so many years. In fact, he still is. The only first-generation Soong type still alive.

No.

Not alive.

“Geordi.”

He looks up. Data is standing in front of his armchair and walks over to him.

“As my best friend, would you do me a favor?”

“Of course, anything.”

“When you leave-”

“Leave? I don’t understand, Data. I thought this was a simulation?”

“Yes, Geordi. But you are not. Before your brain functions ceased Doctor Soong and Jurati with help from Soji were able to scan, map and transfer a complete neural image of your brain substrates.”

Geordi hears a sound like the hissing opening of automatic doors behind him and bright light falls into the small, dark room. Geordi gets up and turns to face the light. It is indeed a door.

“Do I _have_ to go?” he asks, staring further into the white.

“Yes, Geordi.” Again Data’s words are echoing back.

“I can’t stay here?” He looks at Data, standing almost shoulder to shoulder with him.

“Why would you want that, Geordi? You have a life in reality. Here, there is only existence, but no life.”

Geordi’s chest hurts and his insides are contracting. If this is just a simulation, why do his feelings have to be so real?

“You wanted me to do you a favor.”

“Yes. When you leave, I would be profoundly grateful if you terminated my consciousness.”

From one moment to the next, everything in Geordi becomes completely silent and cold. “You want to die.” He hears an echo of his own words.

“Not exactly, Geordi. I want to live, however briefly, knowing that my live is finite. Mortality gives meaning to human live. Peace. Love. Friendship. These are precious because we know they cannot endure.”

Geordi slowly wakes from his dull rigidity and shakes his head weakly. “I ... can’t.”

Data puts a hand on his shoulder, his golden eyes looking at him emphatically. “I ask much of you, I do know that. But I also know that as hard as it will be for you, you will grant my wish. A human who lives forever is not a human after all. Is that not true, Geordi?”

Before he completely loses it, Geordi hugs his friend and presses his face into his uniform.

He knows he can’t go against Data’s logic. He knows he has no right to deny Data that wish, when he’s spent his whole life trying to instill a sense of self-determination in him. But he also knows it will break his heart. For the second time.

Data’s hands stroke his back comfortingly. “I am deeply sorry, Geordi.”

Geordi slowly calms down and takes a deep breath. A man his age shouldn’t cry like a baby. Not even in front of his best friend. Especially when he’s asking for one last promise. He wipes his face and looks at Data again.

“All right. I’ll do it. I promise.”

“Thank you, Geordi.”

Geordi gives him his hand and when Data takes it, he puts the other one over it. “Goodbye, Data.”

Data smiles and puts his over as well. “Goodbye, Geordi.”

One last time Geordi hears the echo of the words, then he lets go of his friend, turns around and walks into the light.

***

He removed the first memory stick and wished he could be with Data in his last seconds.

“Born an android.”

He removed the second memory stick and wished he could give him a friendly word on his last way.

"Died a human."

He removed the third and last memory stick and wished he had stayed with Data in the simulation.

The machine terminated.

**Author's Note:**

> I watched the Picard series with very mixed feelings. And thinking about it, gives me even more of that.
> 
> There were a few things I liked, seeing all those characters from TNG being the most important reason I even started watching it. The Data/synth arc, even though I would have loved to see the story that let to the banishment of synths (the flashbacks were far too short), was generally interesting. I even liked the overall looks, although they were completely different. And I really fell in love with the soundtrack.
> 
> Then there were all those things I didn’t like. For example most of the new characters, which was a huge problem. The only one I really started liking was the ship’s captain (forgot his name, like most of the new characer’s) and his Holos as well as Picard’s Romulan housekeepers. Pretty much everyone else either sucked from the start (this Romulan loverboy and his sis, urgh) or they got more and more annoying. The rushed ending was a shame, while the story took much too long at the beginning.
> 
> Even Picard himself felt strangely not like himself. Maybe its age and his general life, but to me he was too emotional in the series. Picard always was a stoic character in TNG, introverted, mostly quiet, he had his emotional moments, sure, but they were rare and well placed. In the Picard series, it felt like they were all over the place.
> 
> Which leads me to the reason I thought the attempt at the Simulation-scene was necessary to make it right for me - just a little bit. I literally gritted my teeth in Episode 10 when Picard and Data met in the simulation. Or their consciousness did. Or whatever. They met again. And spoke about love. I’m not sure if it is me being German, because we have several different ways of saying the English 'I love you' depending on the kind of love (friendship, family, romance…) and who we are referring to. But it felt all kinds of wrong. I never, not even in Nemesis, saw them as this close friends. It was more a Harry/Dumbledore kind of relationship between student and mentor. Data once said to Will and Deanna “I’m quite fond of you” and that would have felt okay.
> 
> If it had been Geordi on the other hand, it would have felt right and not even as lovers. They have been best friends for so many years, Geordi even being Datas first friend ever, so he was Data’s role model for what a friend is like, that it would be okay for them to say 'I love you' as friends.
> 
> Am I strange or are there other people out there who felt that Picard dying was completely overdone, so much even, that I didn’t feel a thing but only shook my head. He was one of my favorites in TNG, I should have been in tears! Datas last scene however was wonderful and it was even okay that Picard got to hold his hand. Yes, I would have liked Geordi better in that place, but it was good, as it was.
> 
> Okay, so much for my thoughts and rambling.


End file.
